”I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.“
Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV
We believe in and serve a God of principles. One of his principles found throughout scripture is the principle of seed time and harvest time (Gen 8:22, Gal 6:7, 2 Cor 9:6, Psalms 126:5). A time to sow and a time to reap.
When thinking about what it would mean to have a heart of flesh the beauty of gardens and greenery comes to mind. Think of the heart as your internal garden, designed by God to be open, beautiful and receptive to the voice of God. Imagine that! Beautiful trees, flowers, streams and waterfalls. All open, vast in space and splendour.
We may not have realised, but each and every day the principle of seed and harvest time is at work within our hearts. Daily, seeds are planted in our hearts where they take root and bear fruit (good or bad). It can be so easy to leave the garden of our hearts unattended. Over time we look up from our busy lives and find our hearts are hardened, barren of Gods beauty and instead full of the ‘proposed’ beauty of the world.
The joy we have is our father is a great gardener, who through his Holy Spirit works to perfect the landscape of our hearts. He works to uproot the plants and trees bearing the bad fruits of our sins. Why does this matter? Because the condition of your heart affects how you view things!
We can end up seeing life out of a worldly lens, as opposed to a biblical lens. When our hearts are not landscaped as they were intended, we see the garden of our heart assign priority space to the seeds of our sinful nature. When shame from our sins takes hold, we then erect large gates and fences intended to keep God out of those areas, and our hearts end up in similar conditions described in Mark 4 (Parable of the sower).
If we are honest with ourselves we end up just slotting God in wherever there is space. Now the beautiful open spaced heart God intended is barren of colour and beauty, instead is overrun with weeds and closed off. To truly have hearts of flesh we must first ask the Holy Spirit to uproot the things planted in our hearts not of Him. Then he can plant the correct seeds through the word of God, leading us to have a receptive heart.
A flourishing garden = A heart of flesh
Today take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit, the great and gentle Gardner, to perfect the landscape of your hearts. That you may plant the right seeds in your heart. Pray a bold prayer, that He would search your heart and as His word says uproot anything not planted by Him.
He replied, “Every plant that my Heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots” (Matt 15:13)